Re: smallest ANCIENT non-bird dinosaur - was what I was asking

["T. Michael Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>]

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 5:09 PM, David Marjanovic
<david.marjanovic@gmx.at> wrote:
>
>  No, I just wouldn't call it a stem-mammal, I'd call it a stem-theropsid. Or
> stem-synapsid if you prefer.

Given how rare named total groups are compared to named crown groups
(especially outside of vertebrate paleontology!), this doesn't seem
like a very useful way to use the prefix "stem-". (It'd be almost
entirely useless in botany, for example.) It's better attached to the
crown group name: _Sphenacodon_ is a stem-mammal, i.e., a member of
the mammalian stem group.

>  (Random fact: The names of the species of *Sphenacodon* are among the
> coolest ever. First there's an ordinary *S. ferox* -- and then there's *S.
> ferocior*, the comparative, the "even fiercer one".)

Neat. Can _S. ferocimus_ (sp?)  be far behind?

-- 
T. Michael Keesey
Director of Technology
Exopolis, Inc.
2894 Rowena Avenue Ste. B
Los Angeles, California 90039
http://exopolis.com/
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